I Am Your Father

Written by: Joe Ludwig

According to the mug that my wife recently purchased for me (that is 100% exclusive and is NOT available at your local Target or Walmart) I am a “super dad”. This past Sunday, I celebrated my first Father’s Day as a dad of two. In case you missed it, we talked all about Father’s Day and some of the family traditions that my family had when I was growing up in a recent episode of the Craft Parenting Podcast. So make sure you go check it out.

As I sip on my herbal tea from my Super Dad mug, I got to thinking about fatherhood. Believe it or not, being a dad is more than just having really corny jokes up your sleeve at any given moment. Not only is it a ton of responsibility but both parents also have a huge influence in shaping who their children become as adults. Parenting is like taking a class at college for 18 years but you have to go to class every day (even during the summer and the holidays) and there are frequent pop-up tests. There are no pre-requisites for this metaphorical parenting class and there are at least a million “professors” that attempt to teach you the sometimes contradictory class material at the same time. Most of these professors exist on the internet. To make matters worse, you won’t know if you passed or failed the class until your child is ready to move out and start a life of their own. Geeze and I thought my professors were lazy for not posting my grades in a timely matter.

Our first “test” as parents came unexpectedly on day one. Actually, it was sprung on us within the first few minutes of Lilly’s life. I won’t go into the details here but Lilly was a very sick baby when she was born and was almost immediately rushed to the NICU. She ended up spending 16 days there. Caroline and I both visited every day and, more often than not, we spent 12+ hours by her side, reading Harry Potter to her. I wasn’t even allowed to hold her until she was four days old! Those were the longest 16 days of my life but we got through it. Almost the second we got home, Lilly and I watched Star Wars (A New Hope) together. I feel like I aced that exam or at least that portion of it!

With Elliot, we were also tested early, though perhaps not to the same extent. Every local weather person predicted that we were going to have a record-breaking snowstorm that would have the potential to shut the city down and Elliot was born two days before it was supposed to hit. In anticipation of this major snowstorm, we were discharged a bit earlier than we normally would have been and took him home within 36 hours of him being born. We did get snow that week but it wasn’t anywhere near the amount that they predicted. We survived being snowed in our house as parents of an 18-month old and an infant that wasn’t even 48-hours old. And, in case you were wondering, yes, we did watch Star Wars (A New Hope) together as a new family of four (the dogs stayed at my mom’s house those first few days.)

These are just two of the many times Caroline and I were tested as parents. Will we pass the final exam and ultimately the class itself? I guess we’ll find out soon enough. But according to this mug that I am drinking out of, I am doing “super” so far (thanks for asking).

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